Blackbirds (Miriam Black #1) / Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendigity-dog has devised a delectable yet doom-ridden dame in Ms. Miriam Black. Her proclivity for promiscuity, pirate-swearing, and punching sweeps her towards the upper echelons of the best pulp femme fatales.

Add to her well-stocked arsenal of beer swilling and cock noodling the fact that she knows how you will die and you just got a bit of bonus bad-assedness that might make you think about stepping wide of her path.

Alas, no side-stepping here. I went straight at Ms. Miriam, reading page after page with smile and tonic. Why? Because Chuck is a man who can lay down a sentence like a crackwhore after her John’s pipe. He can sure pour forth the metaphor, send out the similes like a forest full of Gumps making epic gumbo lists where no two dishes are the same.

In Blackbirds Chuck plays with one of my favorite themes: fate vs free will. And while this book is no happy Free Willy, it is most definitely a whale of a tale, told splendidly and solidly. So come follow Miriam along the lonely highways and sad diners as she deals with death and redemption.